


Dependencies

by crossword



Series: Let their Wings Unfold [6]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Codependency, College, Drinking, Fluff and Angst, Growing Up, I hope that's what I think it is, M/M, Sister-Sister Relationship, it's me what did you expect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:22:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23476906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossword/pseuds/crossword
Summary: “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to. We can just stay here, have a quiet night in.”“Nah,” he muttered. “We already told everyone we were coming, it’s going to be a huge pain to cancel.” Besides, if he stayed back alone with Will, there would be nothing to distract him from the fact that tomorrow, he was leaving for New York, and Will wasn’t.His boyfriend of nearly four years finally managed to brush his hair back and pressed a kiss to his ear. “Okay.”Nico could tell he wasn’t fooled.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Lou Ellen Blackstone/Cecil Markowitz, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Nyssa Barrera/Drew Tanaka
Series: Let their Wings Unfold [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/782895
Comments: 13
Kudos: 126
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	Dependencies

**Author's Note:**

> Chronologically occurs between part 3 and part 4 of this series, because that's when I started writing it, but never managed to figure out how to end it until I was stuck in quarantine all on my lonesome. Enjoy.
> 
> Oh and I guess trigger warning for emetophobia.

**Nico**

He didn’t startle when the arms looped around his waist from behind him. He’d heard Will approach.

“You okay?” his boyfriend muttered, trying to nudge Nico’s hair away from his ear with his chin.

The son of Hades sighed, nodding.

“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to. We can just stay here, have a quiet night in.”

Nico pondered the thought. It was a warm night for Northern California in late August, the sweet smell of grapes heavy in the air. Down in the street below the balcony of the apartment they’d rented for Will and the other Greek students of New Rome University, he could see young demigods and legacies gathering to celebrate the end of the summer.

“Nah,” he muttered. “We already told everyone we were coming, it’s going to be a huge pain to cancel.” Besides, if he stayed back alone with Will, there would be nothing to distract him from the fact that tomorrow, he was leaving for New York, and Will wasn’t.

His boyfriend of nearly four years finally managed to brush his hair back and pressed a kiss to his ear. “Okay.”

Nico could tell he wasn’t fooled.

“Wheeeewww, Nico! And! Will!”

“You’d think a son of Poseidon would be better at holding his liquor,” the son of Hades muttered. He felt Will nudge him as they moved through the crowd to the table their friends had occupied. Hazel, Frank and Thalia got up to hug them, but Annabeth, who was stuck on the other side of the table with her boyfriend, merely waved.

“’Sup guys! Took you long enough.” Piper commented, waggling her eyebrows when she appeared at their side with a tray of New Roman brew, Reyna close behind. Apparently, being hot and ex-praetor respectively got you pretty good service. Percy guffawed at the comment, stretching out his hand to manipulate the beer into floating out of one of the glasses and straight into his mouth. Hazel blushed as usual, fanning her face with her hand so the promise ring Frank had given her sparkled in the light. Once the daughter of Aphrodite had set the tray down on the table, Nico shoved her shoulder, but she just laughed and shoved him back.

“I guess this is the last we see of each other as well,” Reyna commented as she pulled Nico into a hug.

“Yeah, we’re all heading out. You know where the Huntresses are going next?”

“Oh, here and there,” Thalia interceded. “But we’ll drop in every few months, Rey-Rey wants to check in on her renters.” Reyna stuck her tongue out at the daughter of Zeus while Piper protested.

“Hey! You don’t need to check on us.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about,” the daughter of Bellona interceded, “it’s that sister of yours. I better not come back to find it turned into a strip club, or something.”

Nico could see the changes Reyna had gone through since joining the Huntresses. She seemed freer, more open with her laughter than before. They’d both changed a lot since their first meeting, but that hadn’t seemed to affect their bond forged in pain and loneliness all those years ago.

“Looks like you’ve been here a while already,” Will commented as they settled around the table, looking pointedly at the less than sober son of Poseidon.

“He finished his exams today,” Annabeth explained patiently, using an empty glass to scoop the beer out of the air and away from her boyfriend in a practiced gesture. “And a lot of the non-Romans aren’t used to drinking yet, so they all got a bit carried away together.” She nodded her head at Drew and Nyssa, who were making out in a corner of the room.

“I feel like we should step in, shouldn’t we?” Hazel asked uncertainly.

The daughter of Athena waved her hand. “Nah, it started at the first glass and neither is that big a lightweight. They’ll be fine, just hungover.”

Hazel sat down again and allowed Frank to pat her hand.

“Relax,” he told her. “If you try to babysit every drunk teenager in this city you’re going to burn out. They’re smart kids and Reyna’s yearly all-age sex ed programs have been working great, especially now they’ve been taken over by the Venus and Aphrodite legacies.” He shot a smile at the former praetor who shrugged modestly, sipping the beer Annabeth has scooped up for her.

“Besides,” Piper was quick to point out. “That’s what we have the Venus patrols for.” The group swiveled in direction of the bar, where two legacies of Venus with bags of condoms and batons scanned the crowd attentively. Nico knew there was at least one more by the bathrooms, and they’d passed another at the entrance.

“When you get back to Camp Half-Blood, thank Kahale again for us, would you?” Frank requested of him. “His plan was brilliant. Our teen pregnancy rates have dropped through the floor.”

“Yeah, definitely thank him,” Reyna agreed. “Gods, has it been a year already since he left? Time really flies. A year just seems like nothing.”

**Will**

Nico rolled his eyes. “You’re not as subtle as you think you are,” the son of Hades told Reyna, taking a massive gulp of the beer Will had passed him. The son of Apollo only sipped at his. Not only did he know from previous illicit parties at Camp Half-Blood and summer bashes in New Rome that his alcohol tolerance was no match for his boyfriend’s, but he was already feeling a little floaty anyway. His entire world was currently tilting on its axis, and he hadn’t quite gotten his balance yet.

It all looked good on paper. He could start his studies at New Rome University’s fast-track medical program for divinely gifted healers, and Nico could finish working on his GED with Chiron in New York. They’d moved his things over the summer, setting up his room in one of the exchange students’ apartment along with Cecil, Lou Ellen, and Nyssa. The rest of the time they spent training alongside the legion, fighting in War Games and wandering the streets of New Rome, hand in hand. His boyfriend had taken the whole thing remarkably well, upbeat at every turn. Will had had his doubts about leaving him in the beginning, but the son of Hades kept insisting he was fine, and he seemed fine. Until tonight, that was.

The son of Apollo sneakily stretched his leg to the right and hooked his ankle around Nico’s.

“You okay?” he murmured as the other demigods pursued their conversation around them.

The son of Hades jerked his head, grimacing.

“Do I have a choice?”

Will sighed internally.

“Because if you’re not, you know we can still backtrack. I’ll just come back for another year, wait for you.”

Nico huffed, throwing back the rest of his beer.

“Solace, we both know you can’t do that,” he grumbled, and Will’s stomach squeezed. That was what it came down to, wasn’t it. They both knew he couldn’t turn this opportunity down. Healing was as much his destiny as the twins’ jar had been Nico’s.

His boyfriend seemed to pull himself out of whatever funk he’d sunken into over the course of the day.

“Come on, let’s dance,” he muttered, grabbing Will’s hand and pulling them up and into the mass of writhing bodies. The son of Apollo followed without complaint. Over the years, he’d discovered that although his boyfriend generally disliked dancing, or rather being seen dancing, a few drinks would loosen him up the the point where he no longer cared about anything except the beat and being able to run his hands all over Will in a crowd where nobody paid them the slightest bit of attention. Like all children of Apollo, the healer loved anything to do with music, and when combined with his love for Nico, this led to some of his absolute favorite memories ever. As usual, Nico dragged them to the center of the mass, where nobody sober on the outlines could see, before twisting around and pressing himself against the healer, their bodies swaying in unison to the bass. Even accounting for his level of inebriation, the son of Hades was unusually handsy tonight, running his palms all over Will’s back, over his shoulders and down his front, curling his fingers so his nails drew light scratches on his skin. Will almost held back a groan before remembering that the music was loud enough that no one could hear him. He leaned down and started mouthing at his boyfriend’s neck, nipping at sensitive juncture between his neck and jaw, just like he liked it. Losing himself in the moment.

**Nico**

“Nico. Nico! Hey, slow down there.”

Will grabbed the blue shot glass away from him. Nico hung on. The room was spinning slightly, and the glass seemed like the best anchor at the moment. Since Will couldn’t be.

“Hey, hey.” The son of Apollo grabbed him by the shoulders when Nico suddenly released the glass and stumbled into him. “I was gone for like ten minutes, how many could you possibly have had in that amount of time?”

Nico suddenly felt his eyes water. “Why did you have to leave me? This is our last night together before you’re leaving me for good, why can’t you stay for just tonight?” He sniffed angrily, pushing his boyfriend softly in the chest. Will looked alarmed.

“I went to the bathroom, there was a line – Nico, what’s going on? I’m not leaving you. You said you were fine with me staying. In fact you insisted on it.”

“Oh yeah? Well maybe I lied. Maybe I just wanted to make you happy before you _abandoned_ me,” Nico scowled petulantly. In the back of his mind, he knew he was being ridiculous. He _had_ insisted on the son of Apollo taking New Rome University’s offer, even though his boyfriend had initially hesitated. He’d even arranged for more Roman children of Apollo to be allowed to exchange to Camp Half-Blood so the infirmary would stay properly staffed. Because he knew that this was a great opportunity for Will. The young healer’s abilities had steadily gained both power and finesse over the years, and Nico knew the only way he could keep up the pace was with new teachers, new methods to learn – exactly what New Rome was offering. Even if it meant losing him for a whole year while he finished studying for his GED so he could get accepted as well.

So yeah, maybe he’d underestimated how hard leaving would be. Maybe he’d grabbed one too many shots that were being passed around by Travis Stoll’s new friends, the children of Bacchus. But who could blame him? He was losing Will. The boy who’d refused to leave his side for four whole years, not for one day. He was leaving him tomorrow.

“Let’s just dance,” he muttered, pressing himself up against Will’s chest again, desperately soaking in the smell of sweat and the feel of muscle.

For a moment, he thought Will had given in. The son of Apollo wrapped his arms around him, holding him close. It took Nico a moment to realize that they were moving, his boyfriend steering them out of the crowd and back to the sidelines.

“Where are we going?” He struggled slightly, testing the strength of his boyfriend’s embrace.

“Outside,” Will told him tersely, refusing to let go. “We need to talk about this.”

At the door they were briefly stopped by one of Michael Kahale’s siblings, who held a baton to their chests and looked them over suspiciously before letting them leave, though not without giving the son of Apollo an “I’m watching you” sign. Apparently the alcohol was hitting Nico harder than he thought. Out in the fresh air, a little down the street, the son of Apollo rounded on him.

“All right, Death boy. No more bullshit. What’s going on?”

He knew the alcohol was starting to really affect his behavior, but he couldn’t help himself. He lurched forward, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s neck and pressing him as close as possible.

“Let me stay with you,” he half-whispered.

“Nico,” Will sighed.

“I’ll be good. I’ll find a way to finish my degree here. If you don’t want me I can stay with Piper or Hazel until I find a place. But don’t send me away, please.”

“You’re drunk,” the son of Apollo muttered, wrapping an arm around his waist to pull him upright.

“I miss you,” the son of Hades sniffed. “Please let me stay.”

“Nico, come on, please don’t cry.” The son of Apollo was getting a little teary himself. Nico could see his eyes gleaming wetly in the streetlight. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

“I’ll do anything,” Nico promised as he stumbled along, using his boyfriend like a crutch. “Just don’t send me away. Please.”

**Will**

Nico had stopped begging by the time they reached his new lodgings, which should have relieved the healer, since his boyfriend’s pleas were breaking his heart. Instead the brooding silence the son of Hades had sunken into worried him more than anything else. Not bothering to switch on the head lamp in his room, he lowered his lover to the bed before heading to the kitchen to get them both glasses of water. To be perfectly honest, he’d been hoping for some farewell love-making on their last night together, something that had been well within the realm of possibilities during their pseudo-foreplay on the dance floor. Then Will had stupidly decided to go the the bathroom and Nico had somehow managed to down an entire emotional breakdown’s worth of alcohol. Resigning himself to a night of soft cuddles and some morning hangover sex at best, the son of Apollo returned to his room with the water. He nearly dropped the glasses when he flipped on the lights and was assaulted by the sight of his boyfriend’s bare chest. He’d pulled off his T-shirt and was in the process of unbuckling his belt. When he noticed Will was back, he stopped trying to undress in favor of crawling across the bed in what was obviously supposed to be a seductive way.

“Hey Sunshine,” his boyfriend purred, and despite the sweat and snot and tears, Will would be damned if it wasn’t one of the hottest things he’d ever witnessed. Of course Nico was always hot to him (blood-covered and half-dead excluded), but he usually only reached this level of confident sensuality after several hours of mind-blowing sex. The fact that those shots had gotten him here… oh, this was bad for Will.

“Look honey, you’re really, really drunk,” he tried to reason, choking slightly when his boyfriend licked his lips. Nico moved off the bed, swaying slightly.

“But I want you,” he moaned, moving closer, and the son of Apollo had to force himself to back away, holding the water glasses between them like a ward.

“Just drink something please, and then we can rest?”

Like the words had flipped a switch, Nico’s face crumpled and he sank down to the floor, curling in a ball.

“You don’t love me anymore, do you.”

Will groaned to himself and put the glasses down, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend.

“Darling, you know I do. I love you more than anything. But you’re much drunker than I am and that guy from the Venus patrol _will_ hunt me down and castrate me if I have sex with you like this.”

“You’re going to forget about me.”

“Baby, no, there’s no one else for me, you know that.”

“You will, you’re going to find some hot, non-psycho med student who you can actually talk with about your work.” Nico’s breath hitched with a sob. “You’re going to move on, and I’ll still be stuck in the same godsdamned place I have all my life. That’s what everyone always does, they move forward to better things, and I’m just stuck, and I really thought with you I could move forward too, but I can’t, I’m just stuck in this godsdamned hotel – jar, in my head, and I can’t move, Will, I...can’t...move – ”

“Okay, calm down, just breathe,” Will soothed, alarmed at how fast his boyfriend’s heart was suddenly beating. “Just hang on – “ He maneuvered them into a more open position, placing himself so Nico could lean back rather than forward into him. “Just breathe, sweetheart, it’s going to be okay.” He rubbed his back and arms soothingly. “You’re not stuck. You’re not stuck. I wouldn’t let you be.”

For some long minutes, they sat there on the floor, Will just holding the son of Hades loosely as he sobbed and gasped, occasionally retching blue liquid onto the floor. Finally, finally, his breathing evened out, and he fell back against Will, muscles slack.

“Better?”

Nico sighed. “Yeah. Sorry about that. I don’t know where that came from.”

Will smacked his arm lightly. “I already told you, don’t apologize for shit like this.” He glanced over at the floor. “Well, except maybe for throwing up all over my new carpet. I just got that last month.”

Nico snorted. “It was ugly anyway.”

“You helped me buy it! You said it was great.”

“I said that about a lot of things.”

Silence fell again. Will sighed.

Nico twisted in his arms to face him. “I’m sorry. I’m just drunk and bummed out about leaving.”

“I’m coming back to New York with you.”

“WHAT!”

“If this is how you really feel, then I’m staying with you. You mean more to me than any of this.”

“Will, no! This is your life, this is what you wanted. What you’ve always wanted, and I’m not going to stand in your way.”

“But it’s not just about me anymore, Nic. It’s about us, it’s about what we want together. As a couple.”

Nico shook his head.

“Will – ”

“Nico.”

His boyfriend sighed, his head dropping. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet.

“You’re always here for me. You’re always just a cabin away. Whenever I get hurt, or mess up, or get drunk and have a meltdown and throw up on your floor, I can just come to you and you fix everything for me. I never have to do anything else. And I love you, and I need you. But – ” his breath caught. “Maybe I don’t want to need you all the time.”

Will leaned forward to grab his hand, but Nico pulled it back. “I want to be with you because I want to, not because I can’t handle not being with you. So you need to stay here – ” he inhaled sharply. “And I need to go, Will. I need to learn to solve my own problems, to be my own person again.”

The son of Apollo could feel the tears dripping down his face, but he nodded. “Okay. Okay, baby.” He pulled his boyfriend in for a hug, and nuzzled his face into his neck. Gods, he was going to miss this. When Nico pulled back, he wiped at his eyes with his sleeve.

“But just remember, you can always, _always,_ count on me. Okay? This isn’t good-bye, this isn’t us moving apart. Promise me, Nico.” He took his lover’s face into his hands, looking intently into his eyes. Nico nodded, pressing his lips together, and Will couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss him.

“Oh gods. Vomit taste.”

“I’m so sorry. Let’s just –“

“Yeah, bathroom, let’s just get cleaned up.”

They stood up together, leaning on each other, Will groaning as circulation was reestablished to his legs, and Nico groaning presumably due to whatever alcohol he had yet to purge. Stumbling out to the bathroom, Will threw the door open for them, only to shriek at the sight of Lou Ellen and Cecil making out over the toilet.

* * *

_Three weeks later_

* * *

**Drew**

“Okay, but how exactly is moving in with me and Piper going to help with your codependency problem?”

Piper shoved Drew’s shoulder as she elbowed her way past with a pile of sheets.

“Hey, this is Reyna’s apartment, we just rent it. If Nico wants to move in with us, he is more than welcome.”

Nico grimaced, dropping his head into his chest. “Thanks Piper. But she’s right. I’m pathetic, I couldn’t even last a month.”

The daughter of Aphrodite dropped the sheets on the mattress she’d put in the corner of the living room for him, and huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.

“You’re not pathetic. You’re allowed to get support from the rest of your family. There’s nothing wrong with that.” She shot her sister a look that promised a world of pain if she didn’t change the subject.

“Besides, it won’t be like before, when we basically shared a cabin,” the son of Hades put in. “We’ve set up rules. No more than five shared meals a week. No more than one sleepover a week.”

“Not here,” Drew’s sister put in emphatically.

“We’re both going to work on having our own friends, and our own lives,” Nico continued. “We even agreed not to meet up until after Will’s classes end this afternoon.” He casually glanced as his watch, something he’d been doing approximately every five minutes since they’d picked him up from the train station.

“Yeah. We’re going to develop our own separate lives, just not apart,” he completed.

“Nico? Nico!”

The son of Apollo’s yells echoed through the building’s stairwell and the son of Hades tripped over the mattress in his haste to get to the door. He reached it just as Will yanked it open, throwing a bag of books into the shoe rack, and causing some of Drew’s moderately expensive heels to topple over (she kept the really expensive ones in her room). However, her protests (shoes were shoes) went unheard as the son of Hades swept up his boyfriend in an enthusiastic kiss, climbing him like a tree. Will responded no less enthusiastically. Drew could appreciate a good French kiss, but even she had her limits. Apparently Piper felt the same, since she grimaced and gestured with her head to her bedroom. The other daughter of Aphrodite followed.

“I give it three month before they’re living together full-time,” she commented once the door was closed.

“Yeah, that’s why I only put down a mattress, they are so married,” Piper sighed, dropping onto her bed. “But as long as they’re close enough for Nico, or Will for that matter, to avoid self-destructing…”

Drew grabbed a hairbrush and settled behind her sister on the bed. “You like having him around too, don’t you,” she guessed, teasing her sister’s hair out of its braid.

Piper shrugged, her shoulders relaxing at Drew’s ministrations.

“Because he reminds you of –“

“It’s not… it’s not like that, ” Piper cut her off. “The thing with Jason… I’m over it. I’m fine. It was hard, but now I’m fine.”

Drew moved the brush to the top of her scalp, pressing down in a soothing massage. “You’re not fine. But that’s okay. Come on, talk to me.”

Piper sighed. “I saw Reyna again last week when the Huntresses dropped in, and I know, I know that Mom said she’s never gonna be with a demigod, but she understands. She lost him too once, she gets it. And every time we meet, I feel better, but then she goes again.”

Drew snorted, moving down to the ends of her sister’s admittedly gorgeous locks. No split ends. Thanks, mom.

“Babe, you’re not a demigod. You’re a demigoddess.”

Piper rolled her shoulders in annoyance. “That’s not politically… “

“That’s semantics,” Drew interrupted her. “It’s language, you can interpret it however you want. Besides, what does mom know?”

“She’s the goddess of Love.”

“So? She hasn’t got it figured out. No one has. You just wait and see.”

Piper twisted around, getting the brush stuck in her hair in the process, and silenced Drew’s protests with a hand to her knee.

“Thanks Drew. Not just for this, but for making me come back here. You’re a good friend.”

Drew pushed her back to the front.

“Wrong. I’m your sister. We may be monsters to each other occasionally, but I’ll always be here for you. Now hold still, this topknot is going to take a while.”

“They’re totally having sex in our living room right now, aren’t they.”

“Yup. Still sure you want Nico to move in with us?”

Piper nodded. “Yeah. We’re all family, we should stick together.”


End file.
